Lesson Study II
We are beginning our second round of lesson studies. This time we are sharing lesson ideas in groups of three over the next four weeks. Three students will troubleshoot their lesson ideas – with a focus on content, process and product. They’ll do this within “the fishbowl.” Their classmates will observe from outside the fishbowl. They’ll be using a T chart to track two items – useful questions they heard in the fishbowl and question that “should” have been asked. Feedback from in and outside the fishbowl will be used by students to improve their lesson idea.
Nikkei project planning session
Students are serving as curriculum consultants to the Nikkei Legacy Center. We used class time to work in our three project teams:
- “Museum in a Suitcase” – Developing a set of lesson plans for intermediate through high school students to support a traveling suitcase filled with historic artifacts on the incarceration of Japanese-Americans. ( Christina, Kristi, Cory, Heather, Erin and Damian)
- “Virtual Museum” – Creating an online collection of lessons that parallel the installation at the Nikkei Center tracing pre war life, incarceration, camp conditions and acclamation following the war. I would serve as a pre or post visit enhancement. (Peter and Kyle)
- “Japantown Walking Tour” – Developing a native iPhone app walking tour of the historic Japantown in Portland. It will include geo-fenced text, photos, audio, video and tools for sharing user reaction to the content via social media. (Collin, Aram, Tom and Sam)
Image Credits: Fishing is good near Klamath Falls, Oregon OSU Special Collections
Photo of Nikkei Legacy Center installation
I’m so happy we finally got to finalize our Nikkei Center projects. I know that it is going to not only be a good final project for our class, but also a final product for the Nikkei Center to keep and utilize.
The other half of class we did a lesson study fish bowl. I am excited to do the lesson study in the next weeks for myself because I saw how helpful it was to the group of guys this week. I could see how it helped people narrow their ideas and do some fine-tuning. Since we are all historians and teacher mindsets we see things that the others don’t and we can help each other with gaps in plans. One thing that everyone got asked in the fishbowl was “What is your main goal for the lesson?” This is a great question because it helps people narrow down and see what is the take away message they want the students to have. And the main point is the most important thing for a teacher to know because that is the foundation of how we are going to convey the information to our students.
These next few weeks are going to be busy, but productive!
I enjoyed the “fishbowl” lesson plan activity because it allowed a careful analysis of three lessons while not exhausting time allotments. Since three people were in the center, focusing on their three-person perspective allowed the discussion to deepen, where a full-class discussion may flop subjects and directions much more.
In terms of the Nikkei Center projects, I feel confident that we can accomplish all three goals. No that our focus is narrowed and specific tasks are assigned, this project will be fun.
I’m with Tom. It feels good to finally dive into the Nikkei project.
As for the fish bowl activity, I think it’s the best exercise we have done in class so far. The structure of the fish bowl was great because it allowed for varied levels of interaction. By watching and listening to the fish, I had time to generate and, more importantly, refine ideas and questions before diving into the discussion. Having that reflection period helps to raise the quality of the critique. Furthermore, I am a big fan of the case study approach; it’s how I learn best. I am looking forward to doing this again.
The revised fishbowl concept was a huge improvement over what we did previously. Instead of quickly burning out and losing interest, I found myself being perpetually engaged and more interested in what was going on. I’m also really glad that we got to finalize what we were doing for the Nikkei project, it feels good to have made a little progress on that front.
I am glad that we were able to sit down and discuss our Nikkei projects with our respective groups and the overall idea of what we wanted to do with it. This cleared a lot up and helped focus exacting what will be happening. I also liked the fishbowl concept because it was a great deal more efficient. I was interested in the discussion and found myself raising different questions and comments that were more easily addressed in the three person setting with our observation and then eventual discussion.
I felt like this was a very productive class in terms of future planning and peer support. We have been discussing and throwing around the Nikkei projects for some time now, but I finally feel like we have direction and a place to go with some of our ideas. As our project development continues, it will be interesting to see how things turn out. In terms of sharing lesson ideas with our peers, the fish bowl, I think, was pretty successful. As a presenter, the discussion was helpful, and I came away with various ideas for my lesson.
I agree with all of the other previous comments – I really liked finalizing what we’re going to do for the Nikkei Center, and I definitely agree that they’ll be able to utilize whatever we do after we’re done with the projects. I, too, really enjoyed this version of the lesson presentations. I think that we were able to give valuable critique to the presenters without too much overlap. I also agree with Cory on this; this version of the presentation really kept my interest the entire time – it didn’t feel like it was too long or too short! Definitely looking forward to the next round.
I felt like the Fishbowl activity was extremely productive and was a great use of our time. I think it was a much more efficient than our first Lesson Study. I look forward to doing mine for the 21st. As for the Nikkei Center, it definitely feels to good to have an understanding of what we will be doing and I’m starting to feel more comfortable with the task.